Crown Oil opens new depot to target London

Crown Oil has opened a new distribution depot in a £1m move to target the London market.

Crown Oil has opened a new distribution depot in a £1m move to target the London market.

Bury-based Crown Oil, which supplies diesel, red diesel, heating oil, Kerosene and lubricants, has opened a site in Iver, Buckinghamshire, to service west London businesses and domestic customers.

Plans are also in hand for an expansion next year to supply customers in east London, which would see Crown's existing fleet of three tankers working out of Iver increased to five.

Crown's foray into the capital has so far seen £500,000 investment, with another £500,000 planned over the next six months. Its move has created an 10 jobs initially, including a number of tele-sales roles in Bury.

The London operation is trading under the name Speedy Fuels and Lubricants, and is supplying green fuels for transport, heating and power alongside Crown's core product range.

Managing director Matthew Greensmith said the firm had established the depot to provide prompt service to customers in London.

He said: “Crown has grown significantly across the last few years, and recent acquisitions have reinforced our position as one of the UK’s largest independent fuel and lubricants suppliers. We see this as a natural phase in our growth.

“The Crown Oil business is built on service with next-day delivery the standard and express delivery available in emergencies.”

Crown, which was founded more than 60 years ago, has also switched its banking facilities to Barclays to support its growth plans in the south east.

Family-owned Crown posted revenues of £157.6m for the year to August 31, up from £146m, and has 130 staff at its headquarters in Bury and a depot in Doncaster.

In July it bought the key assets of Samuel Cooke, a family-owned independent distributor of fuels and lubricants based in Burnley, out of administration.

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